


i believe that you will see a better day

by BoPeepWithNoSheep



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Adventure Zone: Balance (Podcast)
Genre: Agoraphobia, Angst, Angus is on a mission, Emotional Recovery, Found Family, Gen, Lucretia is a moon hermit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 18:52:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17473064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoPeepWithNoSheep/pseuds/BoPeepWithNoSheep
Summary: Nobody realizes it until Angus puts the pieces together, the way he is often want to do. It seems like something the rest of them should have picked up on but really it's not so surprising. Everyone is busy with the reconstruction so declined invitations are forgiven and forgotten. It's not until Angus finds the lingering clues that what should be glaringly obvious truly comes to light.





	i believe that you will see a better day

The first clues are the less simple ones, which ostensibly are what draws his attention. When Lucretia politely uninvites herself from his recital. It’s a little ridiculous, because Lucretia was the one who had painstakingly helped him sort through tutors for the violin after Johann had died. They’d found a woman in Neverwinter, a gnome twice Lucretia’s chronological age with a knack for fiddling that was almost a third as good at Johann--Which was high praise in and of itself, no one was as good at Johann ever was.

Maybe Angus could be one day though, that’s what the lessons were for.

She’s completely stoked for his first public performance, they had gone through all of Johann’s work together and found one that they both enjoyed and Lucretia helped him figure out how to play it a little closer to his own level. Music wasn’t really her forte, she’d told him with a small laugh, but you didn’t live on a ship with four musicians for a century and come out without at least a basic understanding.

So when, a week out from his performance, Lucretia delicately breaks it to him that perhaps it isn’t the wisest for her to attend he’s nearly heartbroken.

“It’s only--Well, everyone else is coming to see it. I don’t want to cause problems for your big day, Angus.”

“I-I talked to Taako, he’s just--I mean I don’t think he's fine but he says he won’t start anything if you won’t!”

Lucretia looks at him sadly, with a delicate expression that he’s become more and more familiar with since she stopped being _Madam Director_ and started being _Miss Lucretia_ and maybe sometimes _Mom_. “I--You can have another performance here on the moon, just for the Bureau.”

Angus squares his shoulder, he raises his chin. He wants to argue because this isn’t fair, he wants all of his newfound family together. He wants to say as much, to whine and maybe kick up a fuss with some tears because now that Lucretia isn’t gunning to save the world he’s found that she’s an absolute sucker for waterworks in that same way that Taako is--

But it’s her expression that stays his hand, that makes him keep that card close to his chest for later because for now, he has investigating to do.

He does end up having the recital for the Bureau though, and it’s the happiest he’s seen Lucretia in ages, sitting primly in the front row with a sketchbook on either chair beside her and a pencil in each hand. She sketches out two identical copies of him mid bowstroke, one for her to keep and one for him.

Her copy ends up framed in a place of pride in her office, Angus’ is neatly tucked away into his favorite notebook so he can look at it wherever he is, whenever he wants! It’s still not the same as Lucretia coming to his Official Recital in Neverwinter, but it’s _something_.

Still, his suspicions remain just that, suspicions until roughly six months after The Day of Story and Song--A memorial is being planned, for all those lost during the day but more specifically there’s going to be a _special_ ceremony for Johann. He knows that Lucretia knows about it, the entire Bureau is abuzz with the news for weeks every Wednesday through Friday he comes to visit.

Lucretia however, is subdued, he catches her a few times staring holes into passing employees who chatter loudly about the event. At first, he thinks maybe she’s upset that it’s being run by those who hadn’t _known_ Johann. Lucretia and the half-elf had been close in a way that he thinks is maybe similar to the way he and Lucretia are close. There’s a kinship, a feeling of mutual understanding and Lucretia has handpicked Johann to join the Bureau.

Still, he expects her to put in a token visit. He and Taako plan on it, however when the day comes and he ambles onto the stage as Moral Support for Magnus who’d practically forced his way into the ceremony to speak (who was going to say no to one of the birds?) Angus can’t find Lucretia anywhere in the crowd.

But Killian and Carey are there, conspicuously wearing a set of stones lit up with magic, one recording one transmitting. Angus’ eyes aren’t good enough to spot the runes activated on the transmitting stone but he’d bet _gold_ that it’s Lucretia’s stone code.

So that’s when Angus hits the books, not researching the way he normally does but instead pulling out Bureau files almost as old as he is. Everything Lucretia has done over the decade, laid out at his feet. It’s almost funny, that for all that her extensive documentation is enchanted to hell and back, as far as he can tell none of it is warded against _him_ specifically. He wonders if it’s because Lucretia trusts him or she knows he’d just get into anyway if he really set his mind to it.

Probably both.

All the pieces are set out before him and the picture it paints isn’t one that he likes in the least. How no one has realized it, Angus has a few theories but it all boils down to the fact that everyone’s priorities have been a little skewed lately. With reconstruction, both the physical and emotional scars from the Day of Story and Song take up most of everyone’s time. For the Birds, there are greater scars, those lingering from the voidfishing and even the Century itself.

Declined invitations, meetings endlessly rescheduled until they’re forgotten about, everyone is busy and no one notices or puts together the little clues that glare up at the young detective. Angus understands how this has gotten lost, but it doesn’t make him any less upset about it.

Lucretia hasn't left the moon in nine years.

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from mother mother's "It's Alright" which is a song with Big Lucretia Energy


End file.
